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Saturday, 25 December 2010 22:55

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Penguins

-Did you hear the Penguins are playing a game outside or something?

-Count former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton enforcer Denis Bonvie as a fan of Deryk Engelland (above).

-The Penguins have quite a bit of organizational depth on the blue line.

-News flash: Ticketmaster pretty much robs its customers.

-The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins recalled goaltender Patrick Killeen from the Wheeling Nailers.

-"I can not believe I belong to the Pens." - Penguins forward prospect Tom Kuhnhackl (right).

(Note: this article is translated from German. Kudos to EN reader Uli Englhart for the heads up.)

-Happy 73rd birthday to former Penguins forward and coach Gene Ubriaco. Acquired from Hershey of the AHL in the 1967 offseason in exchange for Jeannot Gilbert, Ubriaco, the first player in franchise history to wear No. 11, spent parts of two seasons with the Penguins as a player. During the franchise's inagural season of 1967-68, Ubriaco appeared in 65 games and scored 33 points. After 49 games and 26 points in 198-69, Ubriaco was traded to the Oakland Seals along with Earl Ingarfield and Dick Mattiussi in exchange for Bryan Watson, George Swarbrick and Tracy Pratt. In 114 regular season games, he scored 59 points. Ubriaco returned to Pittsburgh when he was hired as coach in the 1988 offseason. He managed to lead the 1988-89 club to a 40-33-7 record as the Penguins returned to the postseason for the first time in seven years. After sweeping the Rangers, 4-0, in the Patrick Division semifinal, the Penguins fell to the rival Flyers, 4-3, in the division final. After 26 games and a 10-14-2 record in 1989-90, Ubriaco was fired and replaced by Craig Patrick. In 106 regular season games as the Penguins' coach, Ubriaco had a record of 50-47-9. One of four men to both play for and coach the Penguins (Rick Kehoe, Ed Olczyk and Ken Schinkel are the others), Ubriaco currently serves as senior advisor/director of hockey operations for the Chicago Wolves of the AHL.

Southeast Division

-"We need to create more casual moments, more casual things. Like just shoot the puck and crash the net and find the rebound. Right now we don't get the pretty goal and we still try to do some [of that] stuff." - Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin on his struggling power play.

-Panthers enforcer Darcy Hordichuk has added some actual skill to his game.

Pacific Division

-Coyotes defenseman Ed Jovanovski (right) is expected to play in his 1,000th career game today in Dallas.

IIHF World Junior Championships

-The IIHF World Junior Championships begin today in Buffalo.

(Photos: Engelland-Justin K. Aller/Getty Images; Kuhnhackl-Harry How/Getty Images; Jovanovski-Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Comments (2)

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written by djbst75, December 26, 2010 - 07:45 AM

USA!!!! Good luck USA in the Juniors!!!!

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written by bastage42, December 26, 2010 - 11:32 AM

Good luck to all participants ... but the World Jrs are good luck to any hockey fan who has learned to appreciate them IMO

And thank you, Seth and Uli, for the Kuhnhackl article ... love to read stuff like that!

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